Written By: JustAddBacon, Editing By: AlphaSapphire

Howdy y’all, my name is Just Add Bacon, bringing part three of the new Seeing Sky series, where we take a closer look at each of the prisms of Sky. Today’s prism is Wisdom, a defensive prism that tends to excel in the late game. Personally, I would argue that Wisdom may be the most impactful and relevant prism in the game. Read carefully, we’ve got a lot to talk about.

Disclaimer: JustAddBacon is a sponsored content creator under the Skyweaver Ambassadors program. Any opinions expressed in the article are strictly those of the author, and do not in any way indicate the policies, positions, preferences, or practices of Horizon Blockchain Games LLC.

Lore

Eldritch Lore

Lorewise, Wisdom is focused on learning about the world. Wisdom weavers look into the workings of the world and wish to understand them, gaining insight and knowledge about the world in the process. With the Wisdom heroes this relationship with knowledge is reflected in how they interact with the world, and what drives their motivations.

Lotus, representing pure Wisdom, is of course the easiest example. Embodying the concept in its entirety, he’s founded the Library of Alcazar the “greatest repository of knowledge in all the waking world of Sky.” Iris follows a similar path, although her Agility instincts have her traveling the world to pursue her goals. Given her mention as the source of numerous card’s lore, it’s easy to assume that she often contributes towards Lotus’ library as well.

Titus, as briefly mentioned in the Strength article, focuses intensely on the natural world. He originally worked towards the destruction of the Etherwald to gather Ether Crystals (See Heavy Cavalry, Crystalceratops), but had a change of heart after his life was saved by the forest itself. Striking the opposite tone is Banjo, who, despite bridging the gap between two knowledge based prisms, is the most enigmatic Weaver of all, with almost nothing known about him. No one doubts his insights of course, it’s merely a question of if he will ever share it.

Last for discussion is Axel. As revealed to me by the Grand Prophet of Horizons (Coulter) Axel has a form of future sight: he has visions which have thus far been infallible. However, while some may consider this a gift, such foreknowledge of disasters yet to come, and wholly unpreventable, has been a source of despair for Axel.  This despair was so great that, in desperation, he even visited a witch (probably Broodwhich) in an attempt to get rid of the visions, costing him his eyes in the process. Unfortunately the visions remained, and that is how he remains for now.

Design Stats

All stats courtesy of Horizon. Special thanks to Coulter “Based” Baker

• Avg. Wisdom Card’s Cost: 3.7188 (Avg. Generic Card’s Cost: 3.4034)
• Avg. Wisdom Unit’s Cost: 3.8421 (Avg. Generic Unit Cost: 3.6138)
• Avg. Wisdom Spell’s Cost: 3.5381 (Avg. Generic Spell’s Cost: 3.1394)
• Avg. Wisdom Unit’s Power: 2.5496 (Avg. Generic Unit’s Power: 2.9277)
• Avg. Wisdom Unit’s Health: 4.4605 (Avg. Generic Unit’s Health: 3.5972)

Common Single Target Removal

• Scorch, Matchstick, Incinerate, Insomnia, Spiderella, Xavi (Hyper Beam)

Common AOE Removal

• Whelm, Seal of Doom, Kha Meht (Kha’s Wrath)

Common Punish Options

• Kha Meht, Whelm, Cloud Sloth

General Playstyle

As a general rule, Wisdom is an above average prism. Its units feature higher than average health stats, giving them strong means to control board, and its generic removal tools like Incinerate, Waterline, and Seal of Doom mean that, even without a board of its own, the prism still exerts substantial influence over the game. For Wisdom, control is usually the goal, be it in an actual control deck or in other archetypes.

Before starting though, it should be mentioned that many Wisdom cards are complex, and often end up serving multiple roles at a time. For example, Pokey, Mailpig is an anti-aggro tool in that it can remove a unit while healing and drawing. While Xavi’s Hyper Beam is incredibly useful, its specific draw also makes it valuable for finding key cards like Gift of Aya. Therefore, I will focus primarily on what I consider to be the main role of a card, and discuss its other roles only when relevant.

Early in its curve, Wisdom gains access to a vast array of removal and utility effects. Scorch and Matchstick are reliable removal options, as is the aforementioned Incinerate, and options like Xavi, Eradicate, and Whisk Away provide good answers for specific threats. Wisdom also has powerful consistency tools in options like Niko, Hydrate, Turtor, Reefus, Giza, and Canny Mask. Finally, I would be remiss to not mention Shield Bash, which is arguably one of the best buff spells in the game.

Starting at 3 mana, Wisdom’s cards begin to become more specialized. Options like Pokey, Mailpig, Spiderella, and Whelm provide invaluable answers to a range of aggro threats. However, all of these cards have specific use cases, and so must be used carefully. Wisdom also finds some handy draw options at 3 mana, including Archivist, Dreams Undreamt, Inspirator, and Windweave.

Desire

At 4 mana and beyond, Wisdom begins to gain access to its most defining tools. Desire, Ruined Visage, and Grover are powerful combo tools, working as either enablers or payoffs, especially for Banjo decks. Dessert Golem is also a grossly overlooked unit, capable of disrupting other decks while giving the Wisdom player a way to use its removal. When played with simple hard removal spells like Mortal Blow, the unit is functionally a 4 mana 5/6 with Barrier, Guard, and Dash.

4 mana is also where Wisdom’s premier defensive tools begin to take shape. Mr. Whiskers is a bulky defensive unit that is difficult for most prisms to deal with, and Nature’s Grasp provides stalling, guard units, and draw. Seal of Doom is also an explosive card for the prism, removing the majority of possible board states from the game and substantially weakening whatever is left. However, these are not cards that may be used carelessly, as all have downsides that experienced players are capable of exploiting. Seal of Doom in particular is vulnerable to careless use, as its recoil damage and de-ramping can end up creating an opening for aggro players.

At its top end, Wisdom boasts perhaps the most value-heavy late-game cards available. Arcadeum Mask offers access to a potentially ridiculous amount of cards, though it requires careful decision-making with each of its random draws. Prismata represents a similarly exorbitant number of cards, but has the risk of overdrawing if not managed correctly. Mixolotron can be paired with Meng’long’s Wish to add 8 late-game bombs to your deck, and also has the benefit of predictability. Finally, Sky Phoenix can be insurmountable if the opponent lacks the proper dusting to answer it.

As a general rule, Wisdom’s late game is not perfect; each of their options carries with it some risk and potential for disruption. However, Wisdom decks can often get around this downside by simply running more of their late game options. Using cards like Mixolotron + Menglong’s Wish (MixWish) or Prismata reduces the number of cards available to be conjured from. Thus, options like Arcadeum Mask may become slightly more consistent with their use. Additionally, (while unreliable) Sky Phoenix can make great use of the numerous materials generated by the other late game options, supplementing its ability to revive itself. What is important for the Wisdom player to know is that whatever late game options they run should complement each other and the entire deck, with the rest of the deck compensating for the main card’s weakness.  

Gift of Aya

Finally, before concluding this section, I must address the elephant in the room: ramp. A ramp card is any card that increases max mana for a player, and Wisdom possesses more of them than any other prism in the game. Of these options, the most important is Gift of Aya, which heals the user for 5, gives them 1 more max mana for each turn, and draws their most expensive earth spell. This earth spell is most often Gigabloom, but may also be cards like Etherwail or Take Root. Other ramping options for Wisdom include Stoke and Turtor, both of which ramp both players, and Miss Aya, who has Gift of Aya as an attached spell.

The usefulness of ramp for a control deck is hard to explain but even harder to overstate. Fundamentally, ramp creates a potential for tempo gains by the user. However, this only happens if the extra mana is used. For a Wisdom player, this usually isn’t a concern (relevant 15 mana plays like Kha Meht + Kha’s Wrath exist), so Wisdom decks generally benefit a great deal from their access to ramp.

Specific Playstyles

Pokey, Mailpig

As seen, Wisdom is a flexible prism, capable of enabling a diverse set of  deck archetypes. Thus, many different heroes enjoy having access to wisdom for their decks, using its above average capabilities to supplement specific strategies. Others take the opposite approach, focusing primarily on Wisdom cards and using a splash of another prism to leverage a specific strength or interaction.

Within the Aggro archetype, the obvious nominee for Wisdom is Iris Aggro. Agility—as discussed in my last article {{Hyperlink Here}}—is Skyweaver’s premier offensive prism. It brings to any deck bountiful access to low-cost units like Fox Familiar, efficient removal like Void Knight and Lightning Vial, and nasty burn tools like Drillbot. However, the prism lacks top-end options and has some of the weaker options for answering bulky units.

In Iris, Wisdom cards work alongside Agility themes to double down on its strengths and also patch up some holes. Potion Seller and Matchstick are strong tempo tools in the early game, and spells like Incinerate or Xavi’s Hyper Beam allow the aggro player to break through walls more easily. Aside from these strengths, Wisdom also grants efficient draw options to Agility through tools like Hydrate and Turn the Tide. Iris can also take unique advantage of these by running Blitz and Card Sling, granting her a large quantity of draw-power.

Kha Meht

On the control side of things, no hero is more emblematic than Axel Control. Axel can further supplement Wisdom’s ability to ramp by pairing it with Old Fogey and occasionally Wed Dead, allowing it to rapidly accrue tempo. With this, cards like Scraptrosity and Kha Meht shine by leveraging their unique blends of board control and disruption to lock down the game. For dealing with aggro decks, Axel has access to options like Pokey, Mailpig, Chill, Whelm, Wall of Dead, and numerous other options. Axel also has access to many of the best healing options in the game, including standouts like Jakintsu and Bard Rock.

As a Prism, Heart performs mostly a supporting role for the deck, bolstering what Wisdom is already good at by helping shut down aggression. From there, the true strength of Axel—late game value—emerges. Because Heart provides such bountiful early game control to Wisdom, options like Prismata and MixWish can reliably come into play later in the match. Thus, given that Axel’s late-game options are genuinely the best, Axel can, in theory, cover every possible opponent. Chill and Whelm shut down aggro, Xavi and Seal of Doom cover midrange, overdraw and ramping cover enemy control decks, and Dessert Golem covers combo. Of course, things are not always so clean in practice, but I can’t recommend a better hero for winning the generic matchup.

Finally, I’d like to discuss in more detail an emergent combo deck that uses a Wisdom core, Shields Titus. This deck revolves around a new card from Hexbound Invasion, Shields Up!, which draws your highest health unit and doubles its health. This is paired with Nightmare, which goes from having 11 health to 22. From here other high-health cards like Shield Bash, Axolotl, and Scarred Servitor are employed, allowing users to pick up cheeky wins from surprise amounts of damage. I can’t say it’s a super reliable deck, but it’s brutal against opponents who lack hard removal.

Staple Cards

Hydrate

• Anything that draws 3 for 1 mana is bound to be useful, and Hydrate is no exception. The question then becomes how to compensate for giving the opponent free cards. For Wisdom this is done rather easily, as other options like Turtor, Xavi, Stoke, and Pokey, Mailpig make it easy to overdraw the opponent. Forest Fire and Germinate are also become nasty enablers from outside Prisms.  

Matchstick

• This is perhaps the most common 1 mana unit for Wisdom. It’s just good removal, always expect to run into this.

Potion Seller

• The Wisdom version of Fox Familiar. Potion Seller is a bit less aggressive but a bit more reliable, and also has the benefit of occasionally drawing Hydrate, just to really give the opponent a bad time. Not for every deck, but when it fits it’s a strong card.

Tragic Poet

• Handy for a number of decks. As a 1/2 with Banner, it’s relatively handy, and its combination of spell and effect allow it to serve a number of roles from damage to acceleration. Cute with Unfallow.

Incinerate

• Possibly the best 2 mana removal spell in the game, with tough competition from Sunder, Germinate, and Lightning Vial. 4 Damage is enough to clear a wide array of threats, and its unconditional nature with no drawbacks makes it easy to include in any deck.

Take Root

• Arguably one of the best spells in Wisdom, which is already chock-full of powerful spells. The Roots are annoying, but options like Nefurti, Mr Whiskers, Burninate, or Chill can solve the problem easily. Additionally, one could simply focus more on efficient removal, and worry about the Roots later.

Xavi

• Probably the best unit in Wisdom. For 2 mana, it reliably finds spells like Prismata, Gift of Aya, Gigabloom, and Skychannel. For another 2 mana, it also comes with Hyper Beam. Normally Hyper Beam is just an average removal spell, but with Wisdom’s numerous sources of overdraw it can reliably answer the majority of units in the game.

Spiderella

• A little awkward since you usually have to take damage first, but this can be handy for dealing with a lot of strong units like Fren Z and Steam Knight

Pokey, Mailpig

• One of those cards that just does it all. Healing and drawing for both players may seem bad, but doing that against aggro is almost always better for the user. Removing a weak enemy unit is also a nice bonus. Pairs well with Shield Bash.

Whelm

• Disgustingly good against most decks. What’s unique about Whelm is that it can force units into an already full hand, allowing it to also generate value as well as tempo. If your opponent is holding 7 cards and you bounce 3 units with this (suppose Buster, Squire and two Armis Guards from Reinforce) your opponent ends up with 9 cards in hand, lost their two leftmost cards, and also gained no card advantage from the draw at the start of their turn. In effect, the play is 1 for 3. Be careful about recycling summon effects, though.
• Aside from this, I should also mention that Whelm weirdly counters a super wide variety of things. Wall of Dead, Tentacle Eruption, Undergrowth… you never know what exactly this will work well against, but always keep it in mind

Dreamcalling

• A gross combo card worthy of mention. It only sees play in certain decks (usually ones that play Hydrate on turn 1), but when used it allows nasty units like Cloud Sloth to arrive very early. One of my least-liked cards and liable to be nerfed eventually. Ostensibly, these facts are unrelated.

Mr. Whiskers

• A mathematically solid unit that has fallen out of favor lately due to the prevalence of Righteous. In other metas, the unit is a reliable defensive wall, providing a good defensive spell upon its death.

Seal of Doom

• A get-out-of-jail-free card for control decks. The recoil makes the card bad early, and dangerous at low health, so aim to have other spells for the early game and use this pre-emptively. If you wait for the “best value” to use this spell, your opponent will almost always kill you with burn damage.

Arcadeum Mask

• One of the four horsemen of Wisdom control. Arcadeum Mask is unique among the others in that its value is almost immediate and the least predictable of all of them. Generally speaking, you want to play this unit as late as possible with as few cards in hand as possible. It also synergizes well with Prismata, which both makes Mask more consistent and provides an easy way to cycle past bad spells.

Gift of Aya

• The other contender for best Wisdom Spell. At 5 mana, Gift is a tad expensive, but the earlier it’s played, as with any ramp spell, the better. Aya’s draw is also of great benefit, since it can reliably find options like Etherwail, Gigabloom, Nature’s Grasp, and Take Root. Aggro decks don’t really have the time for Gift of Aya, but anything faster than Fox wants to run it.

Jakintsu

• A reliable healing option that also provides minor draw. Jakintsu’s buff can also be applied to a unit, but this isn’t usually ideal as hard removal is currently common. For best results, use proactively before the health is needed.

Mixolotron

• The second of the four Wisdom horsemen, Mixolotron pairs with Meng’long’s Wish to literally stack the deck with powerful late game cards. Mix + Wish is the most reliable of the late game options since its draw is fairly deterministic, but many of his draws are clunky top end threats that are generally unreactive. Against decks running options like Arcadeum Mask or Prismata, Mixolotron is generally unpreferred.

Kha Meht

• One of the pressingly short list of Wisdom Cards I actually like, Kha Meht is usually played for its spell, but sometimes works merely as an offensive threat. Even for 7 mana, the body is still good, but Kha most often sees play around 15 mana, stealing board with its spell. Don’t be rigid with using this card, as its flexibility is one of its greatest strengths.

Prismata

• The third of the Wisdom’s four late game options, Prismata (most often paired with Sphinx Mask) provides a balanced mix of value, speed, and volatility. Because the spell’s value is entirely conjured, Prismata feels very different across prisms. In general…
• Strength: Good removal, expect a buff spell or two
• Agility: Meh removal, but reliable burn. Silliest goose of the options
• Heart: Reliable removal and occasional draw / healing
• Intellect: Outstanding removal, but usually just that

Prismata also adds the spells directly to hand, complicating its use. While this feature of adding to hand allows the resources to be used more efficiently, its sheer quantity also means that overdrawing is a risk. Use it carefully, but try to avoid waiting until it’s too late.

Sky Phoenix

• The last of Wisdom’s four horsemen, Phoenix is interesting because it can either win games entirely or do absolutely nothing. Phoenix has two limiting factors: the accessibility of dust/silence for the opponent and the revival fuel for it in the discard pile. Most decks aiming at Phoenix don’t find more than 3 or 4 revives for it, but the greater concern is it being disrupted. Because it is so easy, I recommend always running Phoenix with at least one of the other horsemen. Mixolotron and Prismata have the quaint side effect of providing one more revive for it, but Arcadeum Mask’s sheer quantity can also achieve this. Additionally, if one wishes to build around it specifically, I recommend running it with either Eldest, Soul Forge, or Clone Army to guarantee getting use from it. Dusting/Silencing one or two Phoenixes is easy, but more than that and it can become insurmountable.

Synergy With Other Prisms

Strength

• Titus normally follows the roadmap of Axel, but can also pull off aggressive builds with things like Niko/Charmling + Demon Pact. As a Prism, Strength provides strong spells like Sunder, Chomp, Kha’s Wrath, and useful top end options like B.F.R. and Titanic. The prism lacks good internal draw power outside of Tune-Up, so Wisdom will have to be the primary provider.

Wisdom

• Sometimes it is appropriate to play a dual prism deck with 5 other cards and 25 Wisdom cards. Yes, Wisdom is that good, and its weaknesses (lack of reliable top-end removal, inability to apply pressure) are that easily remedied.

Agility

• Agility greatly appreciates access to Wisdom’s premier 1 mana units like Potion Seller and Matchstick. Additionally, cards like Meng’Long, Kha Meht, and Turn the Tide help supplement the prism’s late game, which is normally lacking. Most interestingly, Iris may be the best hero for using Sky Phoenix, not as a late game threat, but as a turn ~10 “deck check,” giving the user free wins into many aggro and midrange decks.

Heart

• With options like Chill, Forest Fire, Beloved, Old Fogey, and Harbinger, Heart supports everything Wisdom is good at and patches up what it’s lacking. Aside from perhaps Undragon or Pharonis, the prism doesn’t really bring much late-game value to the table, but Axel is more than happy to simply lean into Wisdom for that. Note: If using Mix + Wish, playing Hydrate before Wish guarantees an eventual Grave Roil and Pharonis.

Intellect

• Easily the best Prism for removal, Intellect’s plethora of removal spells allow Wisdom to set up safely and not worry about late-game bombs. However, Intellect lacks healing options, meaning that Wisdom will need to rely on other tools. As a late game plan, Archivist can pair will with the spells from Prismata or Arcadeum Mask to supplement this.

Difficulties

Blind

In general, I think Wisdom is the strongest prism in the game. My view is that the mana curve in Skyweaver is very finely tuned, and Wisdom’s cards are consistently either beating their counterparts or moving Wisdom ahead on the curve. However, it is not a perfect prism, and it does rely on a support prism to do well.

Most obviously, Wisdom lacks good answers to medium and large units. Options like Seal of Doom, Xavi, and Judgement are able to address this gap, but these cards will be demanded throughout the game and can’t be relied upon alone. Other prisms like Strength, Heart, and Intellect have sufficient tools to patch this up, but the support Prism will determine what type of threats you will still struggle with.

Additionally, while Wisdom has access to good healing, many of its options are either conditional (Libra) or slow (Jakintsu, Gift of Aya). Thus, healing from the support prism is also quite beneficial. Strength brings small but crucial proactive healing with cards like Chomp and Kha’s Wrath, and Heart brings more reliable healing with options like Chill, Bard Rock, Beloved, and Vishiva. Either prism is effective, but do note that Intellect can not supplement Wisdom’s healing aside from Fren Z and It’s a Trap.

Conclusion

Wisdom is a powerful prism, capable of performing multiple roles within any given deck. Its units’ focus on high health means that many of its options are safe on board, and its strong spells and card value make it an S-tier defensive prism. Of course, it's not perfect, and the gaps it does have are exploitable. Next time will be a slight break from the series with some things a bit more exotic. Until then, see y’all in Sky!

Fox Familiar

Just Add Bacon is a PHD student at Texas A&M, studying International Relations and Game Theory. In his free time he’s a member of the Skyweaver community, commentating tournaments and co-hosting the Sky Sessions podcast with BlankHandle and Cytus. His favorite heroes are Fox and Horik.

“Basically, anything I can put a fox or a dragon into. Or both.”

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